


The Birds and the Bees (and the Wolf and the Necromancer)

by katayla



Category: Darkest Powers - Kelley Armstrong
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to a certain someone for the title and to everyone who gave me feedback and encouragement along the way!</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Birds and the Bees (and the Wolf and the Necromancer)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glamaphonic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glamaphonic/gifts).



> Thanks to a certain someone for the title and to everyone who gave me feedback and encouragement along the way!

"Are you and Derek being . . . careful?"

Aunt Lauren and I were sitting at the kitchen table. It was hard to find time alone these days, but Derek and Simon were off with their dad and Tori was up in our room.

I sighed. "Derek is _fine_ , Aunt Lauren. It's not like that when he's a werewolf. He's still the same guy and he would never hurt me."

"No, Chloe." Aunt Lauren laughed a little. "Not that kind of careful, although I do hope you remember that werewolves are animals and . . . "

At my sigh, she trailed off.

"You and Derek are teenagers and I know you've both shown a great deal of responsibility, but sex has consequences and you and Derek need to realize--"

"--I-I-I. We're not--we're not."

"You spend a great deal of time together and I know things can get . . . " She cleared her throat. "Out of control."

I didn't even try to say anything this time. It was the same thing all over again. Aunt Lauren had been prejudiced against Derek for being a werewolf and now she was prejudiced because he was my boyfriend. It was no use to tell her that Derek didn't do _anything_ without thinking it through. She'd just tell me that teenage boys were different when it came to sex and that I needed to understand that. And maybe that being a werewolf made him different in other ways.

I loved Aunt Lauren, but I'm not sure we would ever be able to regain the relationship we once had. I'd grown up too much. Seen too much. I was the jaded protagonist in the sequel to a horror flick. So I just sat there and let her lecture.

Derek and I weren't having sex anyway. Neither of us was exactly experienced and, whatever Aunt Lauren thought, we didn't spend that much time alone together. And, when we did, Derek was a wolf.

She still didn't quite understand that either. I don't think any of them did. He was a wolf, but he was still _Derek_. I'd look at him and know exactly what he was thinking because he had the same expressions he did as a human, the same look in his eyes. But watching him transform still wasn't exactly a romantic experience.

After a while, Aunt Lauren told me she loved me and knew I would act responsibly, so I went up to Tori’s and my room. I lay down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"What's up with you?" Tori asked.

"Nothing."

"Oooookay."

"Aunt Lauren thinks Derek and I are having sex. Or want to have sex." I wasn't actually sure which, now that I thought about it.

"And good little Chloe never even thought of such a thing?”

"Tori!"

"Okay, okay." She sat cross-legged on her bed. Apparently, this was a topic that interested her. "But you and Derek are so responsible that you're not going to have sex until you’ve discussed it to death and have a huge stockpile of condoms."

"She thinks we'll act in the heat of the moment or something." I turned on my stomach and groaned. I couldn't talk about this stuff. Back in high school my friends would talk about their boyfriends and it would seem like they lived in a different world. I had crushes, but I'd never come close to anything real. I'd wondered about sex, but it wasn't anything I had to deal with yet.

And Derek and I weren't--we didn't--

I groaned again. If I couldn't even think about it in my own head, then how could I ever even _have sex_?

"So you're not having sex."

"No," I said into my pillow.

"Well, me either," Tori said.

That made me laugh. Most of the time we stuck to our little group, our makeshift family, which meant Tori didn't exactly have candidates for sex.

"She means well," I said.

Tori snorted. "Too nice."

It was good to know our relationship had progressed to where we could use shorthand with each other. But I was right. Aunt Lauren _did_ mean well. She just didn't know what was best for me.

"Have you--you haven't?"

I was pretty sure I knew the answer from things Tori had said before.

“No,” Tori said.

She was silent for a while and then asked, "Do you want to?"

"I-I-I-I." I hadn't stuttered so much in months.

Tori groaned. "You're such an innocent."

"I am not." I had raised the dead. I had caused someone's death.

"How far have you gone?"

"I'm not answering that."

I'd seen Derek naked. Hard not to do when he shifted. But he hadn't seen me naked and hadn't pressed for it. Hadn't pressed for anything, really. I wondered if I should be self-conscious about that. Everyone seemed so far ahead of us. We were just enjoying being together. Spending time together.

And kissing. I definitely liked kissing. And maybe our hands strayed sometimes, but it was a long way from there to sex. And it seemed like a step everyone thought we were on the verge of taking.

I spent the rest of the day in our room. When Derek got home, we went out for a walk in the woods. That was the only place we could reliably be alone. Derek said he needed me when he shifted, and privately, we’d argued over that. He didn't need me. And he _shouldn't_ need me. He'd had to shift without me before. What if that happened again? But logical Derek wouldn't listen to my arguments.

He didn't really need to shift today, but he'd been away all day. Simon said we couldn't be apart for long before Derek started giving him his puppy dog eyes, as if it were all Simon's fault Derek wasn't with me. I thought that was an exaggeration, too, but I wasn't going to argue with spending some time alone with my boyfriend.

"What did you do today?" Derek asked.

"Nothing."

“Mmm,” Derek said. Which was Derek speak for, ‘I don't entirely believe you, but it doesn't sound like something I need to press you on.’

When he took my hand and tugged me to him, I realized it _wasn't_ something I needed to talk to him about. Sex would happen. And, yes, Aunt Lauren, we would be careful. But I didn't need to worry about it, and it didn't need to be _now_.

So I reached up to kiss Derek and stopped worrying about anything at all.


End file.
